Movie Smarts

Iron Man Quiz: See What Your Memory Can Build

Fifteen questions, four choices each. Give your movie memory a moment to shine.

Published 2026-10-24 Updated 2026-10-24 15 questions

Iron Man: His Next Project Is Going to Raise Eyebrows

A brilliant inventor has spent years enjoying the rewards of his work without looking too closely at the damage it causes. A terrifying experience changes that, sending him home with a secret project and very different priorities. His new plans do not please everyone who benefits from the old ones. The result is a story full of clever gadgets, bruised egos, and tests that would worry any sensible safety inspector.

The workshop is open. Let's find out how much of the first adventure you remember.

1. Who is the man behind the Iron Man armor?
- Reed Richards
- Tony Stark
- Bruce Banner
- Hank Pym
Stark arrived in the comics in 1963, and Stan Lee modeled him on Howard Hughes, inventor, industrialist and playboy. Reed Richards, Bruce Banner and Hank Pym are Marvel scientists from other corners of the comics; Banner had his own film out the same summer.
2. Who plays Tony Stark?
- Sam Rockwell
- Tom Cruise
- Edward Norton
- Robert Downey Jr.
Favreau fought Marvel to cast an actor whose arrests and rehab stints made the studio nervous, and Downey won the part with a screen test. Tom Cruise had been attached to an earlier version for years; Sam Rockwell turns up as a rival in the sequel.
3. Who directed Iron Man?
- Joss Whedon
- Jon Favreau
- Joe Johnston
- Shane Black
This was the first film Marvel Studios financed itself, and Favreau, fresh from Elf, also plays Happy Hogan, Tony's driver and bodyguard. Joss Whedon directed the first Avengers film, Joe Johnston the first Captain America and Shane Black Iron Man 3.
4. What is Tony's company called?
- Stark Industries
- Stark Dynamics
- Arc Technologies
- Stark Enterprises International
Tony inherited the company at twenty-one after his parents died in a car crash, with Obadiah Stane minding it in the meantime. The big arc reactor at the Los Angeles plant was his father Howard's work, built as much for publicity as for power.
5. In which country is Tony captured?
- Pakistan
- Syria
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
In the 1963 comic he was captured in Vietnam, and the film moved the story to Afghanistan. The convoy is ambushed with Stark weapons, and the shell that puts shrapnel in his chest carries his own company's name on the casing.
6. Who helps Tony build the first armor while they are prisoners?
- Obadiah Stane
- Happy Hogan
- Ho Yinsen
- James Rhodes
Yinsen, played by Shaun Toub, operates on Tony in the cave and mentions that they met once at a conference in Bern, when Tony was too drunk to remember. He buys Tony's escape with his life, having lied about a family waiting for him at home.
7. What does the device in Tony's chest keep from reaching his heart?
- Metal shrapnel
- A tracking chip
- A blood clot
- A chemical capsule
In the cave the magnet runs off a car battery until Tony builds a miniature arc reactor to power it. Pepper later mounts that first reactor in a case reading 'Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart', and it saves his life when Stane rips out the new one.
8. What is the rough first suit of armor called?
- Mark Zero
- Mark I
- Iron Prototype Seven
- Model Alpha
The Mark I is cobbled together from the missile parts the Ten Rings wanted assembled into a weapon, and its wreckage is scavenged from the desert and reverse-engineered into Stane's Iron Monger. The silver Mark II follows, then the red and gold Mark III.
9. What is Tony's assistant's name?
- Pepper Potts
- Betty Ross
- Christine Everhart
- Maria Hill
Virginia Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has been in the comics since 1963, where the nickname came from her freckles. Christine Everhart is the Vanity Fair reporter Tony sleeps with, Betty Ross belongs to the Hulk and Maria Hill works for Nick Fury.
10. Which band's song plays over the end credits?
- AC/DC
- Guns N' Roses
- Black Sabbath
- Audioslave
Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' kicks in the moment Tony tears up the cover story and tells the press who he is, though the song itself has nothing to do with the comic. AC/DC's 'Back in Black' is the one blasting in the Humvee at the start.
11. Who plays James Rhodes in this first film?
- Idris Elba
- Don Cheadle
- Terrence Howard
- Anthony Mackie
Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle for Iron Man 2 after a dispute over his salary, so the switch in the answers is a trap for anyone who remembers the later films. Rhodey eyes the silver Mark II suit in Tony's workshop and says 'Next time, baby.'
12. What is Tony's artificial intelligence assistant called?
- J.A.R.V.I.S.
- K.A.R.E.N.
- E.D.I.T.H.
- F.R.I.D.A.Y.
Paul Bettany recorded the voice in a few hours and later became Vision, the android built around the same program. In the comics Jarvis is the Starks' human butler; the other three are systems Tony builds later, two of them handed down to Peter Parker.
13. What is the name of the missile Tony demonstrates in Afghanistan?
- The Patriot
- The Tomahawk
- The Javelin
- The Jericho
Tony unveils the Jericho for the generals minutes before the ambush, pouring a drink from a cooler built into the launcher. The Ten Rings want him to build one from their stockpile of Stark parts. Patriot, Tomahawk and Javelin are real American weapons.
14. Who plays Obadiah Stane?
- William Hurt
- Kurt Russell
- Jeff Bridges
- Nick Nolte
Bridges shaved his head for the part and later described the shoot, with its unfinished script and daily improvisation, as a very expensive student film. William Hurt was in Marvel's other film that summer, as General Ross in The Incredible Hulk.
15. Which character appears after the credits to discuss the Avengers Initiative?
- Steve Rogers
- Nick Fury
- Clint Barton
- Phil Coulson
Samuel L. Jackson's Fury is waiting in Tony's living room after the credits, the first of Marvel's teasers for a shared universe. The comics had already redrawn Fury to look like Jackson, with his blessing. Coulson is the agent trying to book a debrief.

All the answers

1. Who is the man behind the Iron Man armor?

Tony Stark

Stark arrived in the comics in 1963, and Stan Lee modeled him on Howard Hughes, inventor, industrialist and playboy. Reed Richards, Bruce Banner and Hank Pym are Marvel scientists from other corners of the comics; Banner had his own film out the same summer.
2. Who plays Tony Stark?

Robert Downey Jr.

Favreau fought Marvel to cast an actor whose arrests and rehab stints made the studio nervous, and Downey won the part with a screen test. Tom Cruise had been attached to an earlier version for years; Sam Rockwell turns up as a rival in the sequel.
3. Who directed Iron Man?

Jon Favreau

This was the first film Marvel Studios financed itself, and Favreau, fresh from Elf, also plays Happy Hogan, Tony's driver and bodyguard. Joss Whedon directed the first Avengers film, Joe Johnston the first Captain America and Shane Black Iron Man 3.
4. What is Tony's company called?

Stark Industries

Tony inherited the company at twenty-one after his parents died in a car crash, with Obadiah Stane minding it in the meantime. The big arc reactor at the Los Angeles plant was his father Howard's work, built as much for publicity as for power.
5. In which country is Tony captured?

Afghanistan

In the 1963 comic he was captured in Vietnam, and the film moved the story to Afghanistan. The convoy is ambushed with Stark weapons, and the shell that puts shrapnel in his chest carries his own company's name on the casing.
6. Who helps Tony build the first armor while they are prisoners?

Ho Yinsen

Yinsen, played by Shaun Toub, operates on Tony in the cave and mentions that they met once at a conference in Bern, when Tony was too drunk to remember. He buys Tony's escape with his life, having lied about a family waiting for him at home.
7. What does the device in Tony's chest keep from reaching his heart?

Metal shrapnel

In the cave the magnet runs off a car battery until Tony builds a miniature arc reactor to power it. Pepper later mounts that first reactor in a case reading 'Proof That Tony Stark Has a Heart', and it saves his life when Stane rips out the new one.
8. What is the rough first suit of armor called?

Mark I

The Mark I is cobbled together from the missile parts the Ten Rings wanted assembled into a weapon, and its wreckage is scavenged from the desert and reverse-engineered into Stane's Iron Monger. The silver Mark II follows, then the red and gold Mark III.
9. What is Tony's assistant's name?

Pepper Potts

Virginia Potts, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, has been in the comics since 1963, where the nickname came from her freckles. Christine Everhart is the Vanity Fair reporter Tony sleeps with, Betty Ross belongs to the Hulk and Maria Hill works for Nick Fury.
10. Which band's song plays over the end credits?

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath's 'Iron Man' kicks in the moment Tony tears up the cover story and tells the press who he is, though the song itself has nothing to do with the comic. AC/DC's 'Back in Black' is the one blasting in the Humvee at the start.
11. Who plays James Rhodes in this first film?

Terrence Howard

Howard was replaced by Don Cheadle for Iron Man 2 after a dispute over his salary, so the switch in the answers is a trap for anyone who remembers the later films. Rhodey eyes the silver Mark II suit in Tony's workshop and says 'Next time, baby.'
12. What is Tony's artificial intelligence assistant called?

J.A.R.V.I.S.

Paul Bettany recorded the voice in a few hours and later became Vision, the android built around the same program. In the comics Jarvis is the Starks' human butler; the other three are systems Tony builds later, two of them handed down to Peter Parker.
13. What is the name of the missile Tony demonstrates in Afghanistan?

The Jericho

Tony unveils the Jericho for the generals minutes before the ambush, pouring a drink from a cooler built into the launcher. The Ten Rings want him to build one from their stockpile of Stark parts. Patriot, Tomahawk and Javelin are real American weapons.
14. Who plays Obadiah Stane?

Jeff Bridges

Bridges shaved his head for the part and later described the shoot, with its unfinished script and daily improvisation, as a very expensive student film. William Hurt was in Marvel's other film that summer, as General Ross in The Incredible Hulk.
15. Which character appears after the credits to discuss the Avengers Initiative?

Nick Fury

Samuel L. Jackson's Fury is waiting in Tony's living room after the credits, the first of Marvel's teasers for a shared universe. The comics had already redrawn Fury to look like Jackson, with his blessing. Coulson is the agent trying to book a debrief.